


The forgotten ink

by EclipsedGhost



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine, Epic Mickey (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, Happy Ending, What-If, a few scares, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:06:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27110176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EclipsedGhost/pseuds/EclipsedGhost
Summary: Mickey and Oswald venture into a forgotten studio to find out what happened to an old friend. Things aren't exactly like they expected, but they still have to try.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 32





	The forgotten ink

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this over a year ago but never posted it, so I figured it was worth a try (can't deny that part of the reason I made this account was because I was a bit too embarrassed to post this...)! Excuse any errors please, english is not my first language. Also this was written waaaay before the ending of Bendy (I think maybe it was around chapter 2's release actually?) so some things might not follow canon

"Bendy...? ... Buddy? Are you here? You alright?" his voice echoed in the abandoned workshops, the rusty gears of the few still functioning projectors and distorted music his only reply. Mickey's grip on the brush tightened. The place was scarily quiet, the grim and decaying atmosphere a painful contrast to the golden age of the studio, and the smell of ink and rotten wood wasn't helping. Just what exactly happened to this place?

He wasn’t really sure he wanted to know.

"Oswald... maybe we should leave-"

"And leave Bendy here alone? No way! Have you taken a look at this place? We can't just leave him here!" with a tired sigh, Mickey followed Oswald as he stormed off through the old corridors, stubborn as always. In hindsight, he should've expected him to get all worked up over this, though. If there was someone who knew how abandonment feels like, it sure was Oswald, of course the rabbit wouldn't want a friend to end up like him if there was a way to avoid it.

It wasn't that Mickey didn't want to help the missing toon- Bendy might have pulled quite the pranks in the old days, but they were -mostly- harmless, and he could be a very reliable friend when someone needed a hand. What really worried him where the mysterious circumstances that surrounded the studio's sudden closure: it was already odd enough that it even had to close in the first place when Bendy's cartoons were almost as popular as his own, and the doubts just kept growing after the ex-owner of the studio -what was his name? Joe? John?- refused to give any explanation, either coming up with some excuse and leaving, dodging or just straight up ignoring the questions.

It was just a matter of time before the questions slowly came to a halt; the man was looking older than he should've, hands constantly shaking and eyes jumping from one side to another, almost as if looking for something following him, with neither Bendy nor any of his friends anywhere in sight. Most toons used to cling and hang around their creators, it wasn't uncommon for them to stick around even after the studio closed or their cartoons fell into obscurity, Boris himself used to do so, always someone bright and cheerful who enjoyed a good company. Maybe they needed some time? It was a hard blow to see your show suddenly cancelled, after all. Eventually, they stopped asking, and soon, everyone was forgetting. Before anyone could realize it, Joey disappeared, and with him the chipper Bendy's crew.

Maybe if they had pushed more the matter... well, now it was not the time to sulk over the past. Oswald was right, they had to help Bendy, leaving him alone wasn't an option.

The deeper they ventured into the old building, though, the more complicated -and rather frightening- their task got. The place was covered in posters and cardboards cutouts of the smiling demon, but Bendy himself? Not even a drop of ink in sight. It almost looked like a haunted house attraction rather than the animation studio it once was.

Tired of walking, Mickey sat on one of the old chairs, trying to ignore the creaking of the wood and the clouds of dust. Leaning on the table nearby, he looked away from the unsettling cardboard cutout against the wall. Was it just him, or was that thing really staring at him...? Maybe the atmosphere of the place was starting to affect him more than he thought.

"Argh! We're just going in circles, this is getting us nowhere!" In an angry fit, Oswald kicked a chair, successfully breaking its leg, to then proceed to cough his lungs out because of the dust.

"Alright, alright, why don't we sit down for a moment and think about this?" Mickey was starting to regret not bringing Gus with them, the gremlin would've surely figured something out by now. "Did we check all the rooms of this place?"

Once his cough fit died, Oswald pondered over his question, chin resting on his hand.

"Mmmh... well, there were a few weird doors closed... and... that room with the planks of wood blocking it... which one was it?"

"Do you mean the room with 'ink machine' written on it?"

"Yup, that one!" Oswald snapped his fingers, a light bulb turning on over his head. The rabbit remembered checking the room before, peeking in through the gaps left by the planks, but there didn't seem to be anything of interest in it, besides a bulky machine of doubtful use and a conspicuous amount of ink splattered everywhere. He didn't think much of it at the moment, opting for searching in seemingly more relevant places, like the animators' workplaces, but maybe it was worth double checking. Not like they would lose anything trying, right?

"Well, what are we waiting for?" and without waiting for an answer, Oswald sprinted towards the blocked room.

"Wha- wait for me! Oswald!" when Mickey finally caught up, he found the rabbit pitifully trying to yank out one of the planks, pulling with all his strength, and needless to say, his effort was completely wasted.

"Oswald..."

"D-don't sweat it... I almost got it..!" clearly unimpressed and without adding a word, Mickey just took the matter in his own hands, easily getting rid of the planks with the brush and thinner. Losing his balance, Oswald fell on his butt, prompting a series of squeaky noises. Getting back on his feet, he followed Mickey in the room. The machine in front of them was apparently turned off, fresh ink dripping from it. A quick glance was enough to confirm that they were alone in the room.

"Well, at least we tried." the rabbit mindlessly muttered, still intent on studying the ink puddles. That sure was a lot of ink, who needed that much? Especially with the place closed down. "There are still some rooms locked to check, so let's hurry up and- uh?" his attention was caught by one of the puddles near the machine, bigger than the others and... Was it bubbling?

In the fraction of a second, something busted out of the ink, a massive hand clawing and digging into the old wood to drag itself out and nearly crushing him in the process. Yelping, Oswald scrambled to dodge it, barely managing to get out of the way before the hand blindly slammed on the floor once again. In a matter of seconds, a deformed creature was towering over them, ink dripping from what they guessed was supposed to be its body despite being too thin to hold its weight, and a far too wide grin stretched over its face.

Thinking quickly, Mickey threw a handful of thinner at the monster, grabbed Oswald's arm and sprinted towards the exit, not sparing a second glance at the creature, still hissing in pain as more and more ink fell from its form and splattered the floor and walls. The distraction, however, didn't work for a long time, and soon there was a very angry mass of sentient ink chasing them, blindly charging at everything in his path.

"Wait- Mickey-"

"We have to get out of here!" without turning back or loosening his grip on Oswald’s arm –he could only hope not to be yanking hard enough to detach it-, Mickey was running through the corridors, looking for an exit and trying to not slip on the ink that was quickly flooding the place.

"But-" a burst of ink that almost hit him cut off his sentence, and Oswald glanced behind them, finding the monster too close for comfort, the unsettling grin still frozen in place, almost hidden beneath the ink oozing over its face. What caught his attention, however, were the white spots peeking through the ink, a little below the head. In the rush of the moment, it was hard to tell what it was, but it was... familiar, somehow. Then, realization hit him. And a blocked door too.

They would've crashed on the door if Mickey hadn't stopped in time, fumbling with the door handle to get it open, but the door wouldn't move an inch, something preventing it from opening. The old, fading letters over it spelling 'EXIT' were almost mocking them, as if telling them that there was no way out, no escape, and the inky creature was closing on them, faster than it should be possible for something that big.

While Mickey kept trying to open the door without the help of the brush –the decaying building would definitely not withstand a hit of thinner on the wrong place and there wasn’t enough time to strengthen it with the paint-, Oswald quietly stood there, frozen in place, staring at the inky abomination towering over them.

He had to try something before they left or got splattered into the ground- whichever came first.

With a swift movement, Oswald detached his leg to rub it and hope his luck wouldn’t run out right now, snapping it back in place and facing the monster. It was a terrible idea, but they ran out of options.

“Bendy!” The yell had caught both the ink and Mickey’s attention, and to their surprise, it froze and stiffened. Least it bought them some time. Once Oswald realized that the monster wasn’t attacking again, he took it as his cue to continue. He just hoped that whatever he could come up with wouldn’t anger the thing enough to bring the whole place down on them. “Uh… buddy? Is… Is that really you?” Was it just him or did the m- Bendy just take a step back?

_What happened to him?_

Apparently Bendy didn’t take kindly to the whisper, immediately lashing out with an inhuman screech, nothing like the funny squeaks and honks from his cartoons.

“Wait wait wait-! I’m sorry for that but we’re here to help you I swear-!” On one hand, that got Bendy to stop trying to rip their heads off or something. On the other hand, he was still visibly angry. He’d have to pick his next words carefully to avoid having Bendy attacking them again or Mickey pulling out the thinner. He wasn’t really sure which one would be worse.

“Alright, listen buddy, I know you’ve probably been here for a real long time and I’m really, really sorry we didn’t realize it sooner-“ he flinched at the threatening growl before gathering the guts to continue, “b-but we’re here now and I promise that we’ll do our very best to help you! I don’t know how you’re feeling after whatever happened here and I won’t pretend I do, but that doesn’t matter, we’re not scared and we won’t leave you alone again, buddy.”

In all honesty, he didn’t even know _how_ –not if, he refused to say if- they could help him, they didn’t even know what happened to him or his friends for Walt’s sake, was there really a solution to… whatever happened here? Regardless, he made a promise, one he fully intended to keep, he would try his best to help his old friend- if Bendy did still consider them friends. It wouldn’t surprise him if after whatever he went through in this abandoned place the little demon was full of anger and resentment towards everything and everyone. And he spoke from personal experience.

“I don’t know if you want it or not but… We’re still friends, Bendy.”

Despite feeling his legs turn into jelly and Mickey likely trying to burn holes into the back of his head with his glare –was he crazy? He could have died with the stunt he just pulled!-, Oswald stood his ground, quietly observing Bendy and waiting for a reaction, silently hoping that whatever happened now wouldn’t end with two less toons in their little world.

Bendy hadn’t moved an inch, still frozen in place like a statue, though Oswald could swear there was more and more ink falling off his form. He had to squint a bit to make sure and still couldn’t quite tell with all the ink, but he could almost swear that his tall, skeletal frame was… shaking? He sure hoped that was a good-ish thing. Who could even tell what was good and what was bad anymore in that situation.

He didn’t have to wonder much longer. What could be seen of his grin was so strained and forced it didn’t even resemble a smile anymore, more and more ink oozing from his face, a trembling arm weakly raising to try and wipe it away, to hold his form together. Oswald felt his insides go cold when the realization hit him, and even Mickey stopped trying to open the door, something akin to sorrow replacing the anger and panic.

Bendy was crying.

Unsure of what to do now, the brothers simply stood there in an awkward and heavy silence, watching as the somewhat disturbing wails of the demon grew louder, the ink of his monstrous form slowly falling apart and retreating from the halls and corridors until there was nothing more than a few puddles left.

In front of them, there now was a shivering toon curled up on the floor, his tiny figure still looking half melted, horns slightly twisted and ink dripping on his face and on the floor, his trademark grin gone and replaced by the very definition of misery and anguish. Bendy made no move to get up, and neither of them pressured him.

While Oswald decided to simply sit down next to him and reassure him with a soft tone that sounded suspiciously similar to what he used to comfort his many kids after a nightmare, Mickey turned to his new personal enemy and pulled out the brush on the stubborn door, decided to fix it and get the three of them out of that definitely haunted building before anything else could happen. Getting out of there for the first time in who knows how many years would probably help Bendy too, he definitely needed a breath of fresh air and some well-deserved rest, just for starters.

With that done and the door open, Oswald offered a hand to help a sniffling demon get on his feet, patiently waiting for him to be ready to take it.

“Let’s go home, buddy.”


End file.
